The leftwing Democrat running against Rep. Jefferson H. “Jeff” Van Drew (R.-N.J.) has put her money where her mouth is, and is raising money to bail out rapists and at least one defendant facing terror terrorism charges at the same time she is challenging the one-time Democrat, who switched parties after voting against impeaching President Donald Trump.
This race for New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District is critical to any chance the Republicans have to regain control of the House, and then there is the race’s symbolic importance as Van Drew was the lone Democratic vote against impeachment – before he dramatically crossed the aisle.
“It is not enough to simply raise our voices in solidarity,” wrote Amy Kennedy, the wife of former Rhode Island Democratic congressman Patrick J. “Patches” Kennedy and the son of the late Edward M. “Teddy” Kennedy Sr., in a fundraising letter for the National Bail Fund Network.
“We have to put real resources to work to dismantle the systemic racism that plaques our country,” Kennedy said.
The NBFN, the group Kennedy is raising money for is now a multi-million-dollar operation flush with cash – as are its affiliates around the country – and they are busy, too as Black Lives Matters and Antifa activists continue to get arrested for their conduct in the streets of our cities.
In her letter, the former schoolteacher, who married Kennedy the year after her 2010 divorce from her first husband, the Democrat wrote: “So today, I am asking for your help supporting those protesting peacefully across the country.”
It is a worthy sentiment, but the fact is that NBFN and its affiliates are bailing out more than “those protesting peacefully.”
NBFN affiliate: Minnesota Freedom Fund
In Minnesota, Greg Lewin, the interim executive director of the NBFN-affiliated Minnesota Freedom Fund, told KMSP-TV reporter Tom Lyden: It is not about the crime, it is about the system, when he was explaining why MFF routinely bailed out sex offenders.
In Lyden’s report, he found that MFF paid $350,000 to bail out Christopher Boswell, a two-time convicted rapist, who was being held on both sexual assault and kidnapping charges – from two different cases.
MFF also paid $100,000 to bail out Denika Floyd, who was being held on second-degree murder charges for stabbing a friend to death.
Here is that report:
NBFN affiliate: Massachusetts Bail Fund
The Kennedy family has long ties to Massachusetts, where the NBFN-affiliated Massachusetts Bail Fund sprung a twice-convicted rapist Shawn McClinton. McClinton was being held on a 2018 aggravated rape charge until MFB paid the $15,000, which put him back on the street.
Thursday, Boston Police arrested McClinton and charged him with raping another woman.
Under the headline: “Free Them All,” the Massachusetts Bail Fund wrote: “The mission of the Massachusetts Bail Fund has always been to free people from jail. We are a non-judgmental, abolitionist bail fund. We post bail for people regardless of charge or court history.”
This was posted after McClinton’s most recent arrest.
NBFN affiliate: Chicago Community Bond Fund
In Illinois, the NBFN-affiliated Chicago Community Bond Fund paid $100,000 to spring Amanda S. Wolf and put her back on the streets – but, this was not straight bail. It was a bond against the $750,000 bail set by Judge Alexander F. McGimpsey.
Once again, Wolf was no peaceful protester – she is charged with terrorism – as law enforcement has Facebook messages between her and her confederate Christian Frezee, which appear to document their plot to use Molotov cocktails to firebomb the municipal building in the village of Lombard, Illinois, roughly 20 miles due west from Chicago.
In one exchange, Frazee asked Wolf if there were any protests in Lombard.
Wolf replied there was: “Nothing but roadblocks and pigs.”
Back in New Jersey, Van Drew has opposed eliminating bail and in 2017 voted against so-called bail reform when he was in the New Jersey state Senate.
Oh, and Kennedy explains in this video she also wants to defund the police:
Cook: Van Drew v. Kennedy a toss-up
The district must be one of the least gerrymandered districts in the United States. The top border of the district is essentially the bottom end of New Jersey, from Atlantic City on the Atlantic coast straight across to the banks of the Delaware Bay, matching up with the Delaware’s border with Pennsylvania across the water.
The Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up, but it is a seat that Van Drew won in 2018, beating Republican Rep. Seth Grossman by roughly 30,000 votes, 53 percent to 45 percent.
In the 2016 presidential race, there were 206 counties that switched from voting for President Barack Obama in 2012 to voting for New York City developer Donald J. Trump – two of those counties are in New Jersey-2, Salem and Gloucester – and Trump has a personal interest in helping Van Drew keep his job as he campaigns to keep his own.
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Neil W. McCabe is a Washington-based national political reporter for The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. In addition to The Star newspaper, he has covered the White House, Capitol Hill and national politics for One America News, Breitbart, Human Events and Townhall. Before coming to Washington, he was a staff reporter for Boston’s Catholic paper, The Pilot, and the editor of two Boston-area community papers, The Somerville News and The Alewife. McCabe is a public affairs NCO in the Army Reserve and he deployed for 15 months to Iraq as a combat historian.
Photo “Amy Kennedy” by Amy Kennedy.
